The images below are Platinum/Palladium contact prints taken from 8″ x 10″ film negatives.

Regina Deluise
Jack’s Classroom
Cortona Series
2001 – 2006

Regina Deluise
‘Coat on Easel’
Italy Series
1983 – 1999

Regina Deluise
‘Long Shadow on Table’
Vermont Series
2007 – Present

Regina Deluise
‘Laundry on Steps’
Cortona Series
2001 – 2006

Regina Deluise
‘Laundry Room’
Cortona Series
2001 – 2006

Regina Deluise
‘Feather and Screen’
Vermont Series
2007 – Present

The photographs of DeLuise have that classical look, so depending on your prejudice they’re likely to produce either immediate pleasure or instant suspicion. I suspect both reactions of superficiality. For one thing, DeLuise understands how both the seductions and the risks are built into her technique:

“The palladium contact prints casts images in a sepia light that most people associate with 19th century pictures. I use an 8 x10 Wista camera and 100% rag layout bond, which is hand coated with palladium, then exposed to an ultraviolet light source. In Florence I printed in the sun. It was a challenge to confront the most classical of landscapes with a photographic medium that, by it’s nature, creates an ‘antique’patina, and still make strong contemporary photographs.” R. Deluise

But the connection with classical photography is not merely technical. It is no surprise to learn that the landscape drawings pinned to the wall in one photograph are by DeLuise herself; so many of the early photographers trained their eyes by way of their hand, not just the view finder, and DeLuise shares that kind of compositional clarity. Her photographs also show an eye for the most delicate textural nuance. That may be why, these pictures recall the massiveness and precision of the 19th century topographical views. [Extract : ARTS Magazine March, 1989 : Regina DeLuise by Barry Schwabsky]